1898 map of Petrograd, the Russian capital, Kronstadt Bay, and the Russian naval base of Kronstadt, from a German atlas. Petersburg, or Petrograd, is on Kronstadt Bay, an extension of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. Kronstadt was an important naval base. North and east of central Petrograd was the Vyborg district, site of many factories and housing for workers.
"On March 1, 1917, bread rationing was introduced and there was a run on the bakeries. This was followed by strikes in the metal works and women's demonstrations. But it was the sort of thing that had happened so often before and there was no general alarm in Petrograd, no real upsetting of the city's life. The first week of March slipped away uneasily but uneventfully, and no really effective precautions were taken beyond the dispatch of a small force of seamen to the capital and a certain tightening-up of discipline by the police."
Events in Petrograd, Russia's capital, for the first days of March, 1917 (New Style) including the introduction of bread rationing on March 1. The bitterly cold winter of 1916–17 affected the combatant nations, and in Russia's case it severely hampered the transport system that supplied the cities. Factories and worker housing were located on the northeast side of the city, across the Neva River. The island of Kronstadt, west of the city in Kronstadt Bay, was home to a Russian naval base. March 8, 1917, was International Women's Day.
The Russian Revolution by Alan Moorehead, page 136, copyright © 1958 by Time, Inc., publisher: Carroll and Graf, publication date: 1989
1917-03-01, 1917, March, Petrograd, strike, women's demonstration, bread, rationing, Kronstadt, International Women's Day
